Action for Libraries

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ACTION FOR LIBRARIES
BCRNETWORK NEws
Bibliographical Centerfor Research' • VO,lume XX, No' 7, July 1.994 • ISSN: 0363·0250
, Cost,Conveni.ence; OuickAccess
to Define Future of Document Delivery
, By Sandra Salazar Stern field
. The debate on the best w.ay to provide patrons access to
materials not held in local collections continues to vex
librarians who are grappling with diminishirig budgets,
at a time of increasing patron demand for quick access
, to resources. Librarians must weigh all the costs and
benefits involved befo;e deciding on the mix of docu­ment
delivery and traditional interlibrary lo~n services
, appropriate for their particular librarY.
,That was the message delivered by Mary Jackson, visit­ing
program officer for the Association for Research
Libraries (ARL) this spring' at a major BCR program en­titled
"Traditional Interlibrary Loan versus Document
Delivery." Julie Wessling, assistant director of public
services at Colorado Stat,e University libraries, and
Sheila Walters, director of ILL and do~ument delivery
services at,Arizona State University, shared BCR's po­dium
with Jackson. Document delivery supplier repre­,
sentatives, Brenda Bailey (product development,
marketing and cu;tomersupport specialist for UnCover
Company) and Lew Maurer (key account manager for'
ref~rence products at OCLe) also sppke.
Document delivery ~an be defined in a variety ~f ways;
but Jackson used the definition she sees as,most preva-
. lent: requests for journal articles or other nonre- '
turnables such as book chapters, with purchase of the
requested item assumed. Often "nontraditional suppli­ers"
(i.e., for-profit vendors) are the sources for docu­ment
delivery-services. Rapid proce~sing and efficient
d~livery are essential,' and direct 4elivery to users is seen
as anolh~i' advantage.
While libraries are giving patrons access to more infor- .
, mation by providing online citations, CD-ROM accessi­biliry
and other electronic access, fundingcutbacks of
both monographic and serial collections are preventing
'libraries fromprovidirig more materials onsite. The fi­nancial
issue of library ownership of those materialsver- '
sus patron 'access to' them has b~come prpno:rnced ..
Jackson cited a recent ILL cost study conducted under'
the auspices orARi. The 77 research libraries surveyed
showed an average cost of an ILL request to be about
$36 - $19 to borrow and $11 to lend.- Thre':quarters
of this cost was attributed to staffing since ILL is so la-'
bor intensive. Comparatively, purchase from document
delivery sources can appear -to be'much less expensi~e,
as ILL staff time is eliminated. ,Other costs, such as
copyright charges, postage or overnight delivery mu:.t
also be calculated to milke a direct comparison.
Patron Demands Important Librarians must -also
, contend with the increasingly strident demands by
, patrons for more convenience, including the capability
to order from and receive items at their offices or
homes. Jacksoncharacterized'many of today's users as
having a fast-food mentality: they want to walk into a
library, order a document and have it readily available
, and adow.cost. Patrons question why they should
have to go to the library, fill out multi-paper forms and
then wait four to five.weeks for an article, ~hen other
options are available. Jackson emphasized that library
staff must meet such demands if library services are to
be seen as successful. .
Sne emphasized that numerous criteria must be kept in
mind when selecting document delivery suppliers.
How easy is citation -id~ntificati~ri? Does end-user ac:,
Contin.ued on page 2
, A ~~n.pro'fj't MU,lti-state Library,S'ervices Cooperative
n yoU make a pholocopy of any
article in Ihis issue, you must
complete a goldenrod Copyright
Form for Ihe Informalion Cenler
for copyright reporting purposes.